If you haven’t heard of MASTER BOOT RECORD by now, you’re either living under a rock, or chiptune metal isn’t your thing. However, just in case neither applies, let me give you a crash course. MASTER BOOT RECORD is without a hint of doubt, one of the top players in the chiptune food chain, more specifically, in the metal tinged chiptune area. The mastermind behind MASTER BOOT RECORD (100% pun intended), Vittorio D’Amore, is sporting a fair number of albums under his belt, some of which I have covered previously here, such as C:\>DEFRAG, Personal Computer, this record from his side project Keygen Church, and I even had the pleasure of talking about all sorts of stuff with him. However, my main point is that he shows no signs of slowing down or dulling out.
Now look, don’t expect Hardwarez to rewrite the paradigm of music making or anything like that. I would just want to curb your enthusiasm, because mine is already high enough and I don’t want to bum you out for no reason. As far as chipmetal, or whatever we should call this, is concerned, this is definitely top shelf stuff and as aforementioned, the best MBR record so far. Why is it the best? I mean, if you listen to it, it will be pretty obvious and frankly, that should be the end of this review. Stop asking so many questions, just listen to the good sputtering synths and the sweet punchy grooves.
Obviously, when you churn out music at a high rate, it can be hard to sometimes maintain perceived quality, never mind one upping said quality. While I did enjoy C:\>DEFRAG and the other follow ups since VIRUS.DOS, I still felt like VIRUS.DOS was the more powerful offering overall, except maybe for the Virtuaverse soundtrack. Hardwarez to me at least, feels like it got a breath of fresh air from somewhere, like a newfound well of energy. Strictly in terms of sound signature and style, it’s the same MBR as always, nothing new there. That’s totally fine. Some artists prefer to hold on to a recipe, while others change theirs up drastically. To each their own. I personally enjoy the MBR recipe enough to not mind an endless series of iterations of it. What I feel though that is different, is the mood and the melodies. Sure you can argue that it’s still basically all the same at a technical and compositional level, but it just feels crisp and fresh this time around. I honestly can’t pin point the exact thing and I won’t even bother, I doubt it matters.
The melodies were always cursive like this and the arrangements follow similar patters, but there’s something about the flow of the songs which is kind of like a laminar flow of water, it’s incredibly satisfying to take in. Dare I also say that something about the mood also changed into a much more appealing tonality? I’m not quite sure what it is on that end either. Because, on paper, it’s really indistinguishable from, say, Personal Computer. Yet, it has a much richer atmosphere during the synthesized parts, and a much more engaging character through the more metal segments.
I could obviously sit and dissect quite a bit, but for the sake of everyone involved, I’ll keep this brief. I definitely found a lot of great moments all throughout, but maybe some of the more standout ones, at least to me, were say the latter half of “CPU”, the first third of “GPU”, and especially the intro in “RAM”. I actually can name a lot of bands with plenty of records like this, where I can’t really speak clearly of anything remarkable, however, it’s something so consistent, solid, and well made, with such a neat pacing, that I can just hop on it at any given moment for any amount of time and enjoy the ride every time. It’s definitely a vibe, a desirable quality which I chase and I’m 100% confident others do as well.
If I had to pick a word at gunpoint, I’d probably go for ‘wistful’. In a way, I think it really encompasses the mood I enjoy so much here. I’m sure that can sound a bit confusing, but I couldn’t imagine anything more appropriate. Wistful isn’t mutually exclusive with energetic and epic – both of which perfectly describe how the record feels and what I also love about it. There’s a sense of adventure bursting about in every corner, but there’s also kind of a sense of longing for it. You get it, right? Well, if you don’t, it’s fine. You don’t have to understand, you just have to believe. It feels like we need a word for all of that, but unfortunately, now’s not the time to sort that out. However, now is the time for you to click play on Hardwarez and get in on the action, but also, to spread the code.
